The High Court in Christchurch On Thursday sentenced gunman Brenton Tarrant, held guilty of shooting down 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand's city of Christchurch on 15 March last year, to life without the possibility of parole.

The Australian national has been jailed for life on 51 charges of murder and 40 charges of attempted murder and a charge of committing a terrorist act.

In handing down the sentence, Justice Mander said there was no minimum period of imprisonment to sufficiently denounce this crime.

Judge Cameron Mander while delivering the quantum of the punishment said that behind Tarrant's "warped" ideology was a "base hatred" that led him to attack defenceless men, women and children last year in New Zealand's worst terror attack.

"It is incumbent on the court to respond in a way that decisively rejects such vicious malevolence," Mander said as he announced a sentence unprecedented in New Zealand legal history.

It is for the very first time a sentence of such a degree has been handed down in New Zealand. Tarrant, through Crown-appointed counsel Pip Hall QC, did not oppose life without parole.

Justice Cameron Mander who delivered the sentence asked the gunman if he wished to address the court before sentence was imposed. "No, thank you," he answered in an even and formal tone.

The judge said Tarrant had failed in his aim of promoting right-wing extremism as he gunned down victims in cold blood but the New Zealand Muslim community had still paid a terrible price.

"It was brutal and beyond callous. Your actions were inhuman," the judge said.

Tarrant seemed unfazed by the sentence, and remained expressionless during his interaction with the judge. The Australian waived his right to make any sentencing submissions, but instructed a standby lawyer to tell the court that he did not oppose a sentence of life without parole.
Tarrant, a 29-year-old Australian national who also believed in the idealogy of white supremacy, sent down shivers across the world community when he went on a rampage massacaring 51 worshippers during Friday prayers in two Christchurch mosques in New Zealand by spraying bullets on them for 20 minutes